John Trenhaile Books In Order

Publication Order of Simon Young Books

Publication Order of Stepan Povin Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

John Trenhaile is a mystery and thriller writer. After having a successful career as a Chancery barrister, he published twelve novels later translated into twenty languages. His book The Man Called Kyril was adapted into a TV film.

Later Hodder republished his books and repackaged them. Beginning of his JOB, he researched more about the KGB and the Chinese Secret Service. He later explored the cruel worlds of traitors, terrorism, and serial killers.

John traveled widely, working for the Taiwanese government as a journalist and editor until his retirement in 2001. Afterward, he lived between England and Sabah in East Malaysia up to 2012, when he moved to north-east Thailand. He converted to a Buddhist and learned how to speak and read Thau at a local school.
He works on a non-fiction account of his Thailand experiences based on the interactions between Buddhism’s goals of Nirvana.

The Man Called Kyril
The Man Called Kyril is the debut in the Stepan Povin series. At the height of the cold war, in the fortress of Dzerzhinsky Square, a top-ranked double agent is exposing the most delicate secrets to London. Threatening his position, the old head of KGB comes up with a suicidal plan to mend the breached security.
His special agent Bucharensky, alias Kyril plans to pretend to be a defector escaping to the West carrying the high secret documents and the mole’s identity. On the dangerous journey from Europe to London, Kyril will soon find himself hunted down by all the secret services of East and West, But he has to ensure he stays out of their catch until the traitor comes out of hiding.

KGB has a mole, and they are desperate to catch him, so they set up an officer hoping the mole will finally get out of his tunnel and get caught. The story’s anti-hero is a complex character who sometimes feels in control of the whole situation and then throws it all away, feeling guilty and anxious. Will the mole finally decide to come out as the KGB hopes? Can the KGB catch the mole before it’s too late?

Throughout the story, twists and turns keep the reader guessing about the last page. The Man Called Kyril is a wonderfully written novel that keeps the reader engaged to the end.

A View from the Square
A View from the Square is the second novel in the Stepan Povin series. Stepan Povin is the KGB’s foreign intelligence chief and the most paid agent in the West. For many years, he has been taking secrets out.

Povin demands a safe passage out of Russia with his position at risk from his subordinate. He now wants to stop the work and seek asylum in the West. He wants to earn his freedom by holding the most shocking disclosure yet.

However, he isn’t getting the asylum for free since he has an exciting piece of information to offer in exchange. The Soviets are preparing to catch an experienced spy Plane that is vital for the security of America. She’s even ready to take the risk of starting a nuclear war while keeping the secret safe. Will Povin serve the start, or will he choose to start a war?

A view from the Square is cold war espionage that will leave readers craving for more. It’s a remarkable story of betrayal and treachery, which keeps the reader guessing until the end. The novel combines a heart-pounding adventure and a stunning insight into the world of intelligence.
Nocturne for the General

Nocturne for the General is the third in the Stepan Povin trilogy. In the soviet prison camp situated near Murmansk, an old man almost getting to the finish line but feels broken and the people around him only know through a number. If anyone around is to identify his real name, he would be murdered by the other inmates.

The black man has black teeth and arthritic legs and is a former KGB general, Stepan Ilyich Povin. He’s a disgrace and is only alive because of the secret he has kept hidden in the two years of beatings and questioning.

His secret is the last link in a chain, and its completion would make his former masters very happy, bringing British intelligence close to the camp.
Nocturne for the General is a fast-moving and compelling spy story. It’s wonderfully convincing and well written. It serves as a splendid evocation of the cruel and cold life of the Soviet prison camp. John Trenhaile did a definitive study of the price of spies’ failure.

A Means to Evil
A Means to Evil is the debut in the Paradise Bay series. Paradise Bay isn’t providing the top 20 places to live in Southern California anymore. The ferocious murder and mutilation break the slumbering peacefulness of a young boy.

He was just the beginning of these cruel acts, and the police sought help from Diane Cheung, the head of their psychological unit, to find out the person responsible for the murder. It’s a series of murders of teenagers with a perpetrator with a history of abuse.

According to the profiler, patient Tobes Gascoign is a disorganized psychopath, while the serial killer is a highly organized psychopath. Tobes writes his diary out of his unusual mixture of feelings for his therapist without showing it to her.

Tobes speaks directly to the reader as a first-person narrator and knows how to win sympathy over and over even when he knows it’s a nightmare for his parents. The Wagner fan who has fallen in love with a ten-year-old Johnny Anderson in Diane’s practice lures him on nightly excursions into his hideaway in the abandoned cemetery where the serial killer has already made some victims.

Tobe’s advances and games with the boy, who is still mourning her mother’s death and constantly at war with his stepmother, are hard to bear.
His nightly intrusion into Diane’s small house, which he chooses as a shelter for the newly kidnapped Johnny, makes the twenty-year-old so emotional.